Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 1995

School news

Modern History prize winners In November 1994 the Queens

What is History like at B.G.G.S.? THE students bave their say..• lan Gray In Decembet 1994 almost every Year9to 12. History iS perceived to have maintained a strong emphasis on in quiry-based learning, on thinking skiDs, but not at the sacrifice of content. Studehts see themselves as

as soon as possible in historical re search. There is a simple and logical reason for this : if one has even a skeleton framework from which to work, or the first intimations of the direction on one's argument, the rest is simply a case of filling in the gaps .. My research, therefore, was more or less a process of adding infor mation and corroboratory evidence to "flesh out" my basic argument. The end resull - the finished essay- should have a clear controJling idea which is proven by a number of arguments, supported by historical evi dence. I hope that my assignment con tained these elements, as I am rather pleased with the result. The topic for my essay was centred around the role of women in Nazi Germany. I researched the essay as my second semester assignment for ModemHistory, and !found it dilficult to come up with an original focus, as the rest of the year eleven Modem History students were also concentrat ing on Nazi Gennany for their assign ments. I eventually decided to investi gate women in this period, as very little has been written about this subject. In order to refine my. topic fw1her, I de cided to see if I could determine how central women were to the Nazi state. I was particularly interested in whether women, as well as meri, were responsi ble for the persecution of minority groups, especially ·Jews, as ·current feminist movements readily accept power for women, but they are not often willing to accept responsibility for the past actions of women. In fact , !found that women did play an active role in Nazism by con doning and even supj:>DI1ing Hitler' s regime, and thus must take some meas ure of responsibility for the tragedy of Nazi Gennany . I was very interested in His tory when I studied it in the Junior School, and found that the research assignment we were given at the end of grade I0 very challenging. I decided to study Modern History because of my interest, and a1so because I think it is important to understand thecauses and effects of many recent events. In addition to content, Modem History has definitely taught me many valuable skills, not the least ofwhich is how to research a topic and formulate an opinion by interpreting lheevidence uncovered by this research - skills which are important in university and later life. Trinity Ryan

land History Teachers' Association notified the school that two Grammar students had been awarded prizes in the Q.H.T.A./Q.A.T.l.S.fThe Courier Mail History Competition. Kate Eltham' sModemHistory essay about Communist China was awarded second prize and $65 in the grade 12section ofthis state-wide com petition, and Trinity Ryan's Modem History essay on the rote of women in Nazi Gem1any won frrst prize of $100 at grade II. Joanne Cameron, from The Gap State High School and President of the Q.H.T.A., presented the awards on Assembly on November 23. We give the two students the opportunity to have tlleir say about their assignments and their feelings about studying Modem History. Frommy very first experiences studying History, it was a subject that I enjoyed immensely and one from which I have gained a great deal of fulfilment. It has often been said that, with out a fmn grounding in our past and an understanding of its nature, we cannot look to solve the problems of our present, or invent the marvels of our future . I am a ftrm believer in this philosophy. While it is certainly true that studying Modem History has im proved my wriUen communication skills, adroitness in analysis and inter pretation, and skilJs in the most im portant aspect of history - research, Modem History has, more impor tantly , given me a finn understanding of the events that have shaped our current society, its economic, politi cal and social climate. It was kept me up-to-date with current affairs and given me a broad general knowledge which is vitally relevant to the worJd in which we live . I chose my assignment topic from a set list. It immediately attracted me, as it proposed an hypothesis about Conununist political rule in China, an area in which I have immense personal interest. In any assignment of historical research, the preliminary readings, those first impressions of the topic, its nature and dimensions, are paramount. I quickly found that my initial approach to the topic was not going to work, and found that there was sufficient evi dence to negate the hypothesis. From there, the next step was getting ideas down on paper. n is important to begin writing Kate Eltham

student in Years 9 and 10 History, and in Years 11 and 12Modern His tory was surveyed as to their views about studying History at B.G.G.S. Using "Survey Analyser", a program in the computer room, stu dents responded to questions probing how enjoyable and how difficult they found the subject and how its workload compared to other subjects. Before outlining the resuJts of this survey, it is important to remember that students' views are often influ enced by factors outside the School. Across the nation at present enrolments in social studies subjects ofall descrip tions are falling. For a range of reasons ''society'' seems to beplacing less value on subjects like History. In contrast, our students not only value the subject, but they also seem to enjoy it. However, the History staff were not just fishing for compli ments. The whole purpose of the sur vey was to find out what students think of our courses and then use that infor mation as part of on-going evaluation and development of curriculum and teaching strategies. Critical comments· were both sought and encouraged. Asked to give the course, "and yourwho1eexperienceofit''anachieve ment level, on average History stu dents from years 9 to I2, gave it an VHA-. Year II Modem History stu dents awarded it a VHA. Suffice to say the vast majority of our students find years 9 and 10History and years II and 12 Modem History, both enjoyable and rigorous. Except for Year 9 stu dents, over 75% see History as very relevant to their future. The longer students study History, the more rel evance they perceive. However, the history courses deliver relevance without sacrificing an emphasis on the facts . Even when the question is asked in the negative, on average over 90% "completely disa gree" with the statement that "we have not learnt many facts or ideas". No one considers History a "soft option". and again the extent to which this percep tion is strongly rejected increases from scribes the ability to work from a remote site, even your own home. Using a high speed modem, a com puter, a phone line and the appro priate software, people can now work from home as if they \-vere connected to the internal network at the office. The advantage of this technol ogy in the school envir onment is that students can access files and software in their own time avoiding the time restrictions that can occur during normal school hours. Apart from the social reasons, there have been a few major techni cal problems associatedwitb remote access. Firstly, until recently, mo· dems have been unable to transfer data at a rate fast enough to be acceptable, except if you enjoyed making a cup of coffee between downloading a file. However, Girls' Grammar has recently purchased some high speed V.fastmodems which can race data at up to115.2kbps. A small number of tbfse modems can now be bor rowed from tbe scboolllbrary. The second maj~r reason for tbe

working hard in History , but espe cially in Years 9 and JOthehomework burden is perceived as no more oner ous than their other subjects .However, the survey indicated the staff needed to re-examine the workload at years 11 and 12, and in 1995 this led to are scheduling of assessment and a reduc tion in the number of assignments re quired in the senior course. Statistics from the survey are not always easy to interpret . Often they raise other interesting concepts. One question revealed that Semester 2 was the more popular for all year levels; but was thai because it was the most recent and most remembered? Year 9 re sponses revealed the students found their textbook very useful, but not so year 10. However, that may be because in year 1 Ostudents were taught toevalu ate their own text critically and iden tify the marginalised groups,the groups which historians have often ignored, like women and minority groups. The HistoryDepartment is con- . tinuing to collect and interpret feed back like this from a variety of sources. The sorts of changes which are being considered as a result include modifi cations to senior assessment, empha sising the critica1 use of evidence a little more at Year 9 and 10 level and individua1ising instruction even more, especially at year 10 level. History teachers and most sen ior History students see clear connec tions between studying History, ex ploring individual needs and interests, and developing people-centred think ing skiJJs appropriate to a variety of occupations . Staffmay need to explore ways ofensuring that students in years 9 and 10 see these connections more clearly. In 1994studentsgaveB.G.G.S. History courses an overaJI VHA-. Ir seems that the vast majoritY acknowl edge that, although it is a rigorous subject with very high academic stand ards, History is also enjoyable. speed problemhas been the develop - ment of Graphieal User Interfaces (GUI}likeMicrosoft'sWindowsand the Mackintosh operating system. These GUis are very resource inten siveandhavetheabilitysoslowdown all but the latest generation of com· pulers. Trying to drag aU the files required by GUI software across a traditional phone line has been al most impossible until r ecently. Bris· bane Girls' Grammar School is now using a very clever piece of remote access software to overcome this problem: Microcom's Carbon Copy for Windows. CarbonCopy for Win dows enables users from home to take over a machine at School and have only the screen, keyboard, mouse and sound grabs captured, compressed and sent down the tel· epbone line. All this tecbnological discussion really means is tbat students can continue towork usingsoftware and Cd-Romdatabases on theweekends, at nigbt and during the boUdays in the con;lfort of tbeir own bomes, all for the cost of a local telephone call. Stay tuned for a upcoming in· formation evening, to inform par ents about tbeir options regarding this new technology.

Joanna Starkey

Each year, in January, the C.R.A. National Science Summer School is held in Canberra. For the final two weeks of the January holidays, 144 students from all across Australia are brought to gether to see the work of Austral ian scientists, to learn about possi ble career paths, to increase com munication skills, and tomeetl43 other people of the same age and with similar interests. There are equal numbers of boys and girls, a selection crite ria. These are divided into groups of about nine students, according lotheirspecial interest areas: biol ogy, physics, chemistry. Students live on campus at the University of Canberra in college residences with tutors who had been in attendance as students in the previous year. The Summer School is not a traditiona1 school in that it does not involve classes or examina tions. It is, however, a learning process involving students, scien tists, and the future of all of these participants and the world of Aus tralian science. The biology groups vis ited the Department of the Envi ronment where they were involved in a role play about National Parks. A visit was also made to the C.S.I.R.O. where the soon-to~be grade 12 students looked at re search about plants, wildlife, and forests. The students a1so visited Parliament House twice and were involved in a forum in one of the theatres on the role of science in Austrnlia's future: should research be industry-based or conducted for its own sake? Indeed, the Summer School, sponsored by C.R.A. and Rotary, placed a strong emphasis on the conn-ections between indus try, business and science. The student& were also honoured tohaveas a guest speaker at one dinner Professor Sir Gustav Nossal. In keeping with the broad ening aims of this occasion, the "school" will be known as the Na tional Youth Science Forum from 1996. . It is a special opportunity for any student with an interest in science and well worth the appli cation. Help + Australia,. Red Cross . Rwgnda Appeal : • Please_send your - dontitio11s to GPOBox9949

Remote access comes to Girls' Grammar Paul Bennett The term "teleworking" de